


Raise It Up

by persephone20



Series: the Haunted series [8]
Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Originals Fusion, Alternate Universe - The Vampire Diaries Fusion, F/M, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Hilarity Ensues, Inspired by The Originals (TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:01:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23111389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephone20/pseuds/persephone20
Summary: After Alaric tells the Mystic Falls Council about the vampires and werewolves in their midst, it isn't safe for Caroline, Tyler, Elena, Stefan and Damon to stay in Mystic Falls. However, Caroline would be staked before she’d leave Elena’s side, Elena wasn’t about to leave Damon behind and nor was Damon going to abandon his brother.The five of them decide to leave Mystic Falls for the New Orleans French quarter in time for the Delphine Music Festival to see what a vampire run town looks like, preferring Klaus and his siblings over a vampire obsessed council to keep them in fear of their lives.AKA: What if the Mystic Falls kids decided to join forces with the Original vampires, hijinks ensues.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes & Klaus Mikaelson, Caroline Forbes/Tyler Lockwood, Elena Gilbert/Damon Salvatore
Series: the Haunted series [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/10352
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

Caroline is going to drive herself completely to distraction with the effort of not thinking about Klaus. He's no longer in Mystic Falls, sure, but that doesn't mean he's left her mind. He made sure of that before he left.

It used to be that she was always aware of him because she was terrified of what he might do to her and her friends next. In the short time she’s been a vampire, she’s been targeted as a bait and nefarious plan by both Katherine and Klaus. If the two of them had known how much they each had in common with each other…

Well, maybe that thought was only bitingly amusing to someone who wasn't the two of them. Without either Katherine or Klaus lurking around, Mystic Falls would have been a breeze, if Alaric hadn't told the council about Caroline being a vampire, Tyler being half vampire, half werewolf and just so casually mentioning that neither of their parents were on the council looking after the town's best interests. Especially given her mom's close personal friendship with Damon Salvatore who, just as it happened, was also a werewolf. 

Thanks, Alaric. 

And so Mystic Falls wasn't safe for any of them anymore. Mrs. Lockwood and Caroline's mom had pulled together some resources and IDs for the small group of them. Now it was only for them to decide where they were going. And that, right there, was the problem: none of them had any idea where they should move to. Caroline and Elena at least had never lived anywhere else in their short lives. 

Caroline's tried, and tried, to stop thinking about the relish Klaus showed at the idea of showing her other cities in the world. She laughed it off at the time, but is it any wonder that now, when she's faced with actually leaving Mystic Falls, she thinks again of him? She's trying hard not to let that sway any of her other thoughts.

Tyler's only suggestions had been nearby werewolves he'd met and, um, that was not a drama any of the four vampires travelling with Tyler needed. 

At least, in theory, Tyler's blood was able to now cure a vampire from a werewolf bite. Not that any of them wanted to test that out in practice. 

“We could go to Chicago,” Stefan suggests, because it was already decided that they would go together as one, or they wouldn’t go at all. Caroline would be staked before she’d leave Elena’s side, Elena wasn’t about to leave Damon behind and nor was Damon going to abandon his brother. 

“And leave you to go all glory days on your recent ripper bout?” Damon raises an eyebrow as he speaks. “Vetoed. Vehemently.”

“Well, have you got a better plan?” Stefan demands. 

“No I don’t,” Damon announces, punctuating each word as though they were each important. 

Just because the two of them are brothers, and Damon had discovered a more cuddly side to himself since beginning his relationship with Elena, didn’t mean the brothers always get along. Especially given Elena has just broken up with Stefan. In the last couple of days. Love isn't enough to get them through each turning off their humanity within the space of a year. 

Oh yeah, Elena has only been a vampire for a very short time, but she's already done something that Caroline never has: Turned off her humanity switch. 

Thankfully, that stint hadn’t been anywhere near so long lived as Stefan’s bouts of doing the same. Or Damon’s, for that matter. 

Maybe Caroline being the only one of the not!hybrids to make the decision of keeping her humanity firmly on made her the odd one out. She prefers to think it's the thing that makes her the most clear headed of the lot. 

As it turns out, Caroline has an idea for where they can go after Mystic Falls. She won’t go so far as to call it a ‘plan’, but it’s definitely an idea. And, as the single clear headed one of their group, she’s pretty much certain that none of the others are going to come up with anything more enlightened. 

“We could go to the French quarter of New Orleans.”

‘Silence’ isn’t a strong enough word for the sound that completely evaporates from the boarding house following her statement. 

Tyler, strangely, is the first one to burst out with a, “What the hell? You’d better be kidding, Caroline.”

But Tyler’s opening his mouth leads the others to butt in with their opinions. None of them are constructive. 

“Are you insane?!”

“Why on earth would we go to New Orleans, let alone literally right on top of Klaus?”

Only Stefan stays quiet, watchful. 

Caroline squares her shoulders as she faces him. “I suppose you think I’m insane suggesting this as well?”

“No. I’m merely noting that my brother seems to have a penchant for shooting down other ideas without bringing in any of his own.”

“Be quiet, Stefan,” Damon demands. 

But there are still no better—or other—suggestions being made.

“The hell with this,” Tyler says, standing. “I’m straight up not going with you all if you decide to go follow Klaus. Am I the only one who remembers what he did to all of us? He was going to kill you, Caroline, not to mention me and Elena!”

“And now he’s broken the hybrid curse,” Caroline says, in what she knows is her best reasonable tone of voice. She turns towards Elena. “He did actually save you this year. I know that doesn't make up for... But anyway, you’re a vampire now, so he has no use for your blood to make more hybrids.”

Elena scoffs. “That hardly means he’s going to be happy to see me. Or any of us.”

Caroline exhales heavily. She'd known this was going to be a hard sell. But sell it she will. “Well we can’t stay here. It’d be like hanging around with a target on our back. The same thing could happen anywhere we go if we stay long enough, or make one simple mistake.”

Stefan crosses his arms over his chest. “I hate to say it, but she brings up a good point.”

Elena wipes across her forehead wearily. “So, what? We just go up to Klaus and say, ‘Please share the French quarter with us’?”

“Not… exactly.” Caroline presses her lips together. Tyler hasn’t left yet, but she can see how close to it he is. Things have been… difficult between them since Klaus tried to insert himself into their relationship. She already has an idea of just how much Tyler is going to hate putting himself in Klaus’ vicinity from that alone. 

She won’t dump Tyler for Klaus. That’s not even on her radar. But that won’t stop Tyler from dumping her. 

Elena steps closer to Caroline, seeing the nervousness that’s probably written all over Caroline. How hard any of this is for her to say. “I’m sorry,” she says. “We’ll listen to you. Promise.”

She finishes that with a look over at Damon, hardly knowing that her and Damon are the very least of her problems right now. 

Instead, Caroline looks to Tyler. He’s already shaking his head, like he knows what she’s about to say, or the gist of it. Just enough to know that he’s not going to like what he’s about to hear. 

In the end, she can’t make herself look at Tyler while she admits to this, so she looks at Elena, taking strength from the other girl standing so close to her. She finally says the thing she hasn't known how to admit to anybody since Klaus left.

“Klaus asked me to come with him to New Orleans.”

“He _what_?” Tyler’s shout is just shy of a growl. Caroline can’t look away from him anymore. She needs to know the kind of expression that’s on his face that matches that voice. 

“That’s… okay, weird,” Elena says slowly. “But I thought we decided were going to all go together.”

Her voice is gentle and patient, and exactly what Caroline needs to hear right then. 

“Well, sort of. He knew I'd say no at the time. But the offer was unspoken,” she says, looking from Elena to Stefan because she has a sense that they are the only two people in this room who are currently even maybe on her side. 

It hasn't been a year, let alone a century. It's hardly a couple of months, since he'd spoken about this to her. She still remembers the way his breath felt on her face, the surprising warmth of his hand holding hers as they danced. But it isn't because Mystic Falls is a small town. It's because they're being forced out. That's entirely different to what he was suggesting. 

Caroline draws herself up out of the memory, forcing extra pep into her tone. “So, I figure, that means it’s something he wants, right? Which means we have something to bargain with.”

“No, blondie,” Damon interrupts. “It means _you_ have something to bargain with. Maybe. If Klaus decides to stay interested in you. It doesn’t mean squat for the rest of us.”

“I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Damon here,” Tyler snorts. 

Strictly speaking, Caroline doesn’t need to take breaths anymore, but they’re reassuring so what the hell. One deep breath in to calm herself down before she says anything in response to those two. “I’d like to remind you both that neither of you have made any suggestions better than mine so far.”

“Antarctica is a better suggestion than yours!” Damon bursts out. 

“Be a hell of a trip to try to get down there unnoticed,” Elena says to him mildly. 

Caroline gives her a grateful smile. Her words aren’t the same as agreement, but Elena's not arguing with her either. 

“What if we gave it a try?” Elena asks tentatively, looking to both the Salvatore brothers. 

Which, great, leaves her with an incredibly tetchy Tyler to face on her own. 

“Not saying we stay there forever,” Elena continues before Caroline says anything. “Not like we can do that anywhere. So, in that case, New Orleans wouldn’t be any different to anywhere else?”

“Ty?” Caroline asks him tentatively. 

“I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this,” Tyler says, shaking his head. “This is bullshit after everything.”

Damon’s worrying his bottom lip, thinking about it now no doubt just because Elena’s asked him to. 

“I wouldn’t mind seeing New Orleans without Klaus having leverage over me,” Stefan mused. 

“He has leverage over all of us just by being the sire of our line,” Tyler grouses.

“Tyler.” Caroline reaches out to him, taking his jaw between her hands and looking up at him. Maybe, just maybe, this will be enough to keep his attention on only her. Maybe that will be enough. “Isn’t it worth it to try, just for the chance of safety?”

Tyler’s jaw works. His nostrils flare as he no doubt bites back a bunch of things he wants to say but also doesn’t. 

Finally, he dips his head. “Just to try,” he grits out. 

And, just like that, the five of them are heading to New Orleans.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s not exactly like Klaus has laid out directions for Caroline to follow him to exactly where he’d be in the French quarter. 

She hasn’t brought the drawings Klaus’s drawn for her, hasn’t brought them along in case Stefan sees and recognised the art style as Klaus’. But, also, she had no wish to risk them being destroyed. 

Far better to leave them in her mom’s house back home. 

Before speaking to her mom and Mrs. Lockwood about their secret being outed to the council, Caroline had never considered that she might use this as a contingency plan. There had, in fact, been no plan in her head where she followed Klaus out of state.

 _“There’s a whole world out there waiting for you, filled with great cities, and art, and music. Genuine beauty. And you can have all of it,”_ he’d promised her. 

Now she just hopes that he still wants to offer all of that to her given she’s now bringing four others along for the ride. 

If she’s honest with herself, she has no idea how Klaus is going to react to her arrival in New Orleans. She no longer knows whether Klaus will be more surprised with the decision she’d made than she is. Even if he is surprised by her, she doubts he’ll actually show it. 

The only time she’s ever seen what could constitute as a vulnerable expression on his face was when he knew she was going to kiss him, and when he said goodbye. 

“Well,” Damon says, at the end of three long days of driving. “We’re the French quarter. Now what?” It only takes 14 hours to drive between Virginia and New Orleans, but they were definitely not wanting to call attention to themselves by speeding, and five vampires who only sometimes get along well weren’t meant to fit into a single car for long stints of driving between breaks.

Caroline wishes she had a snappy retort that would come immediately to mind. In the absence of that, she just says, “I guess we check out the nightlife. I doubt Klaus is the sort to live quietly.”

“No,” says Stefan from the backseat. “That he most definitely is not.”

Their arrival to the French quarter coincides with the Delphine Music Festival, which means there is no shortage of nightlife to be found. Strange thing, though. Although Stefan and Damon catch sight of a few vampires here and there, it’s not like the quarter is teaming with them. 

“It’s not like what I expected,” Caroline says, looking around.

They come across a bar with a cute little fiddle player, though he pretty much seems like the youngest one in the establishment. So far, this is a great city, with great music, so at least half of what Klaus promised has already come to pass just tonight. Even without him being here.

Both she and Damon regularly check in with Elena, making sure things aren’t too much for her, very aware of how new a vampire she is. There is a risk in that, and it makes Caroline glad that she doesn’t see a whole lot of vampires around, even if it is unexpected. 

“I say we dance,” Damon says, spreading his arms out wide. 

“What?” Elena asks, gazing at him with a half smile. “Like, right now?”

“No time like the present!” Damon says. Like a gentleman from olden times, he reaches out a hand to Elena and waits for her to put her hand in his in return. 

Times have changed so much from just one year before, Caroline things, watching them. She watched Elena fight herself against the attraction she felt for Damon just as much as Caroline fought against her own attraction for Klaus. 

Now, one of them doesn’t have to any longer. 

Caroline reminds herself to stay strong. Just because they are here, doesn’t mean she has to give into anything else Klaus was suggesting. 

In what has to be the second time ever that Tyler has agreed with something Damon said, he also reaches a hand out to Caroline. Unlike Damon, it looks exactly like what it is: an 18 year old reaching out a hand and trying to come across as far more debonair than he actually is. 

Caroline has to try not to laugh at him, but in truth this is what she loves about Tyler. How he always tries to be better than he’s scared he is. She launches herself towards him with a delighted laugh that ends in him chuckling too, and the two of them start swaying before Tyler spins her around in a circle. 

“I guess I’ll just… keep an eye out, then,” Stefan says, watching the four of them disappear into the crowd. 

“Either that, or get a drink, brother!” Damon calls out to him. 

*

It’s her first night in the brand new city she’s hoping to call home, and Elena soaks everything in as though she’s hoping to remember it for the rest of her very long life. 

The lively beat of the live jazz music fades into something more slow, something that the musicians can pause to have a drink to, and that those who are dancing can slow down for. 

Not too far away from them, Caroline and Tyler are still dancing, having left off the laughter they started with for gazing into each others’ eyes. Caroline is radiant right now. She’s so happy, in a way that Elena doesn’t think she ever was organising high school events. 

Even with Damon here, Elena doesn’t think there’s any way she could have been so at ease about leaving their homes behind if it hadn’t been for Caroline coming with her. It’s sad when she thinks about Bonnie, and about how Bonnie doesn’t have either of them. But Elena can’t help but be happy. If this is what they were forced to do, they’ve certainly made the best of it so far. 

“What are you thinking?” Damon draws her attention back to him—not that it takes much—and Elena smiles up into his eyes. 

“There’s freedom here,” she answers him, tightening her arms around the back of his neck and arching her back to press herself closer to him. “I can feel it.”

Elena’s pretty sure she seems something cynical flash behind Damon’s eyes. 

He opens his mouth, and then shuts it again without saying anything. In this moment, he’s kind enough not to harsh her buzz with something old and wise. He lets her have this moment, sweeping down to brush his lips against hers. 

Even if this is Klaus’ town, and they still have to find some kind of a place to stay tonight, she still doesn’t think she’s been happier than this in a long time.


End file.
